HERSHEY — Neither Colby Frank nor Dominick Petrucelli, nor any of their Owen J. Roberts teammates for that matter, cared to do the math.

The Wildcats split Saturday morning’s consolation quarterfinal encounter with Parkland right smack down the middle, both teams winning seven individual bouts each. But two pins and five decisions, opposed to one major and six decisions, just didn’t add up.

Not for Owen J. Roberts.

Parkland’s two pins were just enough, or the difference, in a 27-22 win that cut short the Wildcats’ bid for a state medal for the second straight year and, ironically, ended their regular-season run at 20-2 overall for the second straight year.

“We’re disappointed,” said the 126-pound Frank. “We thought we had a good chance of placing.”

The Wildcats instead, will have to be content finishing among the final eight in Pennsylvania. And knowing just six points total were the difference in their two losses here, well, that certainly made the bus ride back to Bucktown a little longer to sit through.

“We know we’re a team without those four or five bona fide studs, a team that doesn’t have that star power,” said head coach Steve DeRafelo. “But I’ll take the 14 guys we’ve had this year. They’ve battled, they’ve fought. They got better along the way this season. They certainly earned their way here, and they earned the right to say they’re one of the best eight teams in the state.”

The Wildcats certainly were gamers against Parkland, the District 11 runner-up that featured state champion Ethan Lizak and three other returning state qualifiers in its lineup. They countered the Trojans’ three-bout, 15-0 burst at the outset with a three-bout burst of their own to get back into it. Then, after both teams exchanged three-bout runs again, the Wildcats were still in it at 24-18 with two bouts remaining.

But that’s when Omar Haddad used an escape and takedown in the third period to hold off OJR’s Evan Boaman and clinch it.

“We definitely had some lapses, but some (of the mistakes) were due to our own guys pushing to get the extra points. But you can’t put this (loss) on one of two guys, either. All of us could’ve done better.”

Parkland (18-4) had the upper hand in the beginning when returning state qualifier Shaun Heist (285) pinned, Jacob Lizak (106) held off OJR’s Aston White, 2-0, and Ethan Lizak (113) needed just 49 seconds to get his slap. OJR came right back by pushing returning state medalist Derek Gulotta (29-5) up to 120 and getting an 8-5 decision, which Frank (18-4) and Petrucelli (22-12) added to with 7-0 and 4-0 shutouts, respectively, at 126 and 132.

That cut the OJR deficit to 15-9. But Parkland came right back itself when returning state qualifier Josh Ortman used a reversal with 1:37 remaining to account for all the scoring in his struggle to beat Demetri D’Orsaneo (21-13) at 138; Michael Marano blanked Peter Fratantoni (21-8) at 145; and Billy Hoh upset Adam Moser (29-8) by a 5-1 count at 152.

The Wildcats didn’t roll over, though.

Kyle Shronk (24-4), all but reduced to wrestling with one arm because of his nagging shoulder injury, was working on a major before Marques Sturdivant’s late throw reduced it to a 12-8 decision at 160; Tyler Rogers (20-14) followed with a 5-3 nod at 170; and Gordon Bolig (37-4) proved he was among the state’s best at 182 by defeating returning state qualifier Nezar Haddad, 3-1 in sudden victory.

But the comeback came up short, even after Brad Trego (22-13) closed it out with a very impressive 12-1 major at 220.

“We were giving up too many points and not getting many points,” Petrucelli said. “We just weren’t getting those last few points when everything was on the line. We just weren’t good enough ... and we wanted to medal here.”

So did everyone else, of course, including DeRafelo.

“We did everything we had to do to give us a chance to win,” DeRafelo said. “There were one or two matches that didn’t end the way we needed them to end.

But you can’t question the guys’ heart, you can’t question their intensity, and you can’t question their courage. We asked our kids to do some very difficult things out here.

“It’s hard for the guys to see the whole picture. From my perspective we lost two duals to two great teams. The close (losses) hurts, absolutely hurts, and that makes it harder for the guys to get over. But they have to get past it, move on, because now they have to get ready for the rest of the season.”

NOTES

The win was particularly pleasing for Parkland, which was eliminated from last year’s consolation bracket by OJR, 36-27. ... OJR actually had a 16-9 advantage in takedowns, with Gulotta (four), Shronk (three) and Trego (three) accounting for more than half of them. ... OJR and its league rivals return to the mats Saturday for the inaugural Pioneer Athletic Conference Championships at Boyertown. The top five finishers in each weight class advance to the District 1-AAA West Tournament the following week at Spring-Ford.